Tech

Top Cellphone Complaint May Surprise You

Do you use your cellphone enough? It seems that concerns about people being too tied to their phones — such as the guy who almost gets hit by a car while looking at his email — have been overshadowed by complaints that people don't use their phones frequently enough.

Few cellphone owners worry that they're spending too much time on the phone. The majority said their phones don't distract them from a task, don't make it harder to forget work on the weekends and don't interfere with the attention they give to others, according to a report released Nov. 30 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

However, nearly 40% of cell owners said people they know have complained because they don't respond promptly to calls or text messages. And 33% said they've heard complaints that they don't check their phone frequently enough.

Cellphones leave little in the way of excuses for not responding to people. Dead batteries or bad service are about the only two legitimate reasons for a delayed response, and even those can be weak. Just 8% of Pew's respondents said they were frustrated by their phone's short battery life. There are car chargers, public charging stations and spare batteries to solve that problem.

Bad service? Twelve percent said bad reception, poor signal or dropped calls were a big problem. For those that find service an ongoing problem, it may be time to switch providers.

Sometimes, you may just not want to answer the phone — you're busy. Shauna Sloan, a busy mom with six kids in Salt Lake City, took a candid approach. If she doesn't pick up, callers hear on her voicemail, "I'm busy and I don't check my messages. Please call back."

But not everyone is guilty of ignoring their phones. Among those whose mobiles are their primary way to connect to the Internet, 57 percent check for messages even when they hadn't noticed a call come in. And 60 percent sleep with their phone next to the bed so they don't miss a call, alert or text.

On the opposite end of the spectrum lie the 15 percent of Americans who don't own a cellphone. Nearly 40 percent of these people said they don't need one or are happy with their existing landline. Half of those people said cellphones are too expensive, while a quarter confessed to just not liking them.

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